


The Project

by EdwardHyde10



Category: Sidneyverse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-19
Updated: 2020-12-19
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:14:30
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,800
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28175235
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EdwardHyde10/pseuds/EdwardHyde10
Kudos: 3





	The Project

The Project  
By  
Pere Fouettard

“Do you really think this is going to work?” Jessica asked, peering doubtfully at the long wooden box. “I mean, I know it works for small joints of meat and stews and that sort of thing but do you really think…”

“It’s a bit late to be worrying about that sort of thing now!” sighed April, the most sensible of the group and the main brains behind the project. “Anyway, the smaller version worked perfectly with that fish. There’s no reason at all this shouldn’t work!” 

“Guess there’s only one way to find out!” Penny chuckled. “I’m prepared to stake my reputation on it!”

“And a whole lot more!” Jessica conceded. It had been a fun project and the three young students were grateful for the amount of time and support their school had allowed them, both in the planning stages and the building, first of the smaller test models then of the finished product. But tomorrow was the big day – the demonstration and contest which, if all went as well as they hoped, would win them Roebuck Scholarships for the combined Cookery and Engineering course which had become both popular and extremely prestigious in recent years, with all of Britain’s top universities competing to offer the best course and attract the top students. University had, however, become more expensive with each passing year so the offer of a full scholarship, complete with Living Allowance, was too great to ignore. 

When the three eighteen year-olds had signed up for the competition, they had not really discussed who the final test-subject would be. In fact, most of the contenders that they knew of were male teams with girlfriends or sisters being coerced or conscripted to help out. There were a few mixed teams and there were no prizes for guessing how that would play out but they were one of the few all-girl teams. 

The remit for the contest was to come up with a new, energy-efficient way to cook whole girls that could also be marketed for home use and did not require a lot of technical knowledge or fancy gadgetry. The girls had approached it as a team effort, recognising that their different body-types would be suited to different cooking methods and assuming that which one of them should sacrifice herself for the others would become apparent as they worked. April, who was blonde and slim, had assumed that she may well end up boiled whereas plump brunette Jessica had pictured herself ending up in some kind of oven like a roast chicken. Over time, however, as the project developed and they leaned towards some kind of slow-cooker, it seemed to have been decided that it would be Penny, a red-head who was pleasantly curvy, somewhat athletic but with enough remaining puppy-fat to keep her on the especially attractive cusp of chubby, would be the test subject. Nobody could remember when this had been decided and, in all honestly, the girls could not recall ever having discussed it. Everyone had just started talking as if it were a given and Penny had raised no objection. During the design and building process she had happily stripped off when needed or laid on the wooden planks to assist with measurement. And now, here they were, the night before the day which would hopefully change all their lives in one way or another.

Although the slow-cooker had been built at the school, it had been transported, along with all the other similar projects, to the exhibition centre where the judging would take place. Since they would need to begin the process far earlier than most of the candidates, the girls had been granted permission to film the first part, which would take place very early the next morning, and show it on a provided video screen while the other demonstrations, each in their own sectioned-off booth, would take place. With no more prep to do, April called her parents and asked them to come collect her and her team-mates and drop them home. The next day would be a very long one and starting very early so a sound and restful night was what they all needed. Penny was not sure if she would be able to sleep or whether the feeling of anticipation she was feeling was more fear or excitement but she knew she had to try if she were to be extra-delicious for the judges the next day! 

The next morning came and Penny’s mum dropped the three girls off at the exhibition centre on her way to work. She had offered to take the day off and come in to watch but Penny was adamant that she did not want any family there. She kissed her mum goodbye and wished her a good day at work as if this was any normal day and not her last. The other two girls waved and called out thanks to Mrs Robinson as they climbed out of the car.

Penny was in normal clothes, a t-shirt and a pair of jeans that would be easy to take off once they got inside. The other two girls were dressed in matching black trousers and black polo-shirts with their school’s logo on it. There was technically no dress-code for the competition but they wanted to look professional and felt that, since they were being supported in their entry by their school then it was a good idea to represent that in their choice of attire.

It was a little before 7am. At least three hours before any of the other contestants or organisers would turn up. The meals were supposed to be ready to serve at 3pm so most groups would not even start the cooking until 12, with many only then starting their prep but, given how much longer this low-energy, eco-friendly cooking method was likely to take, the girls knew that they had to get a head start. Fortunately, the building security had been briefed that they would be arriving and the rather bored-looking security guard in his G4S uniform unlocked the door for them from the inside and led them through the building to the main hall where their booth, one of about twenty, was set up. He made small-talk with them as they walked, apparently glad of the few minutes’ distraction from the monotony, but he was clearly tired and close to the end of his shift. After being assured that they knew where the emergency buzzer was if they needed it and receiving the girls’ thanks, he trudged back off to the front desk to pass the final coffee-filled hours of his shift, glad that he would be back home and in bed before the main event began! 

The booth, the three girls were relieved to see, had not been interfered with since they left the night before. There was the wooden box with its metallic lining and lid propped against the side, the sack of charcoal, the stack of compost bags and the metal bucket with the other bits and pieces in. The box was resting on a metal table, like a work bench in a kitchen, with a set of steps to the side. Penny felt a shiver of excitement knowing that climbing those steps would be one of the last things she ever did and she would not be coming down. Not under her own power anyway.

At the back of the booth was a small but comfortable shower cubical with a towel hanging next to it and a refrigerator, on top of which were a number of mixing bowls, pots and other, larger plastic containers. 

“You jump in the shower.” April instructed Penny. “Jess and I will make a start with the rest of things.” It felt strange to be undressing in such an open, public-looking space. Certainly Penny had been naked in front of her two friends on several occasions while they worked on their project and there had been the early session where they had all stripped off to aid the discussion of different types of girl-meat and the necessary preparation each required. But that had always been in relative privacy, either in a room in one of their houses or in a classroom with the blinds down, after everyone else had gone home. Now she was going to be naked in a brightly-lit, open space with goodness-knows how many security cameras pointing at her. She wondered if the security guard at the front desk would be watching? 

Penny was, she realised and made an effort to remind herself, more fortunate than most in this respect. The majority of the girls being cooked that day would be stripping, showering and standing around naked in front of all the other contestants, the organisers and anyone else who happened to be wandering around, as the event was open to any members of the public willing to pay the ticket price. By the time anyone else arrived, she would be sealed in the box with only her head visible and, by the time her naked body was on view once more, she would be in no position to care! 

“Looking good!” Jessica teased with a cheeky wink and Penny unhooked her bra and wriggle out of her underwear. She had used cream to remove all her body hair before going to bed the night before and her pale skin looked fresh and vibrant. “Remember,” her friend continued, “you’ve got the most important job today. However good our invention is, we’re not going to win if you’re not delicious!” 

“I’ll do my best!” the nude teenager laughed. “Better get the coals lit so they’re ready when we need them!”

“I know!” April tutted a little. “Don’t worry about that, we know what we’re doing! You get clean so we can on with things! The schedule is pretty tight!” 

“Nah I thought I’d just go for a jog around the building and hop straight in the box, give the cooking process a head-start!” Penny retorted sarcastically but with a smile, “The judges won’t mind their meat a little gamy will they?”

“Just get in that shower will you?” April rolled her eyes. “And don’t forget to wash your feet! Don’t want the judges asking what the special cheese sauce is!” 

“Wait!” Penny suddenly sounded serious. “Aren’t we supposed to be filming the whole process?”

“Good call!” Jessica ran over to the tripod-mounted camera and fiddled with it for a few moments before giving the rest of the team a thumbs-up. “We’re rolling!”

“Umm, welcome!” Penny stepped forward, realising that as she was likely to draw the most attention on the video once it was played to the public she might as well own it. She couldn’t help wondering if she would still be alive by the time the event started. It had felt too cruel to test the device on any live subject, even a fish, so she really had no idea how long she would survive. With a shudder, she realised it was even slightly possible that she would still be alive when people started to eat her, but she was fairly sure this would not be the case. “I’m Penny Robinson and, with the help of my friends here, April Masters and Jessica Carfax,” both girls waved at the camera as their names were mentioned, “I will be demonstrating our eco-friendly, low-energy slow-cooker to you today! Now, if you’ll excuse me, I will hand over to April to show you the next part of the process as I need to go and prepare myself.” She blew a kiss at the camera and turned to walk towards the shower, secretly hopping that her shapely bottom was in shot. 

Having pulled the glass panel across and turned on the water, Penny could no longer hear what the girls were saying to the camera but, if she occasionally wiped away the mist from the glass she could see what they were doing while she washed her soft, pink body with the provided industrial soap which was odourless and, more importantly, flavourless so as not to effect the taste of the cooked meat. 

Providing a running commentary as they did so, the black-clad girls continued the preparations. Having emptied out the metal bucket, April poured in the sack of charcoal, squirted on some lighter fluid and dropped in a match. The orange flames leaped up, causing her to jump back, but soon died down and she knew it would not be long before the coals were ready. While this was going on, Jessica poured a layer of compost into the bottom of the box, maybe six inches deep. Having done so, she unclipped the camera from its stand and carried it over to give a better view of the inside of the now partially-filled box. 

The wooden box was constructed from corner posts which fitted into the base, between which the side panels could be slid, making it easy to take apart and transport. The sides and base, although it was no longer visible beneath the compost, were coated with thin sheets of highly polished aluminium. The lid, currently propped against the table, was similarly lined. One end was the same height as the sides and made from a single piece whereas the other currently only reached a little above half the height of the box and had a semi-circular indentation much like the guillotines of the French Revolution or a medieval pillory. Beyond this was a small wooden platform where the girl being cooked could rest her head, outside of the box.

After returning the camera to its stand, Jessica fished down one of the large, shallow plastic containers, more like a tray, from the top of the fridge and set it on the floor. Feeling that she was as clean as she was ever going to be, Penny opened the shower and stepped out in a cloud of steam, grabbing the hanging towel to dry herself off under the passive and ever-watchful gaze of the camera. Once she was satisfied that she was suitably dry, the naked girl stepped into the plastic tray. They had gone through and rehearsed the necessary steps many times during their preparation for the big day so they all knew exactly what they were doing but this was the first time any of it was being done for real.

“Ready?” April asked, approaching with a jug-like container of vegetable oil, “This might be cold!” Penny have a little nod and braced herself as the slim blonde poured the oil out over her shoulders and chest, taking care to avoid her braided red hair, allowing it to slowly trickle down over her ample breasts and down her belly. It was not too cold and, in fact, felt quite pleasant against her just-showered skin. What happened next, however, was even nicer. Before the oil could trickle too far, the other two girls set to work rubbing it into their friend’s skin, making sure that every inch was covered. It felt for Penny like a sensual massage, as more and more oil was poured on and distributed by soft but determined hands over her entire young body, but equally she had never felt more like a piece of meat being prepared for the oven as she did right then! Strangely, she found it was not a feeling she objected to! It felt right, as if this had been her destiny all along. 

Once they were satisfied that their meat was suitably oiled, the other two girls left her standing in the tray and turned their attention back to the box. Penny couldn’t help feeling a little stupid, standing there bare, slightly cold and incredibly slippery, but she knew there was nothing else she could do to help at that point so she resigned herself to standing like a lemon while her friends worked, accompanied by as constant commentary to camera. 

The coals were now ready so, using a pair of oven gloves, April picked up the bucket and tipped roughly half into the box. Jessica used a small garden tool to spread them out evenly before covering them with another thin layer of compost. With the box now full to just below half way, April took a roll of tin foil and laid strips cross-ways in the box, pushing them down so that they should not break when Penny lowered herself in. She then took a bag of large leaves out of the fridge – a special kind of kale, she explained, grown on an allotment by a friend of her grandfather’s. Each leaf was more than a foot wide and looked more like rhubarb leaves than any kind of kale or cabbage but, April assured the hypothetical viewer, unlike rhubarb leaves they were perfectly edible.

She laid the large leaves in on top of the tin foil which was delicately draped over the sides of the box. Then, as Jessica took the camera to show the inside of the box once more, April opened a tin of pineapple rings and spread them out on top of the leaves. Once this was done, she took a pot of sliced garlic and spread out a little less than half, finishing the whole process off with a drizzling of a garlic-flavoured oil. Now it was time for Penny’s big moment. Not wanting the audience and judges to miss any part of the process, Jessica decided to keep the camera in her hand and follow the action for this most important stage. 

“Well, this is it!” Penny smiled at the camera. Perhaps her smile was a little forced but even she was not sure if she was afraid or simply experiencing nerves from being on camera. If she were to slip or mess up now, it would be terribly embarrassing! 

Conscious of Penny’s oily state, April took her hand while she stepped out of the plastic tray then, followed by Jessica with the camera, the pair made their way around the table to the metal steps. Fortunately, the steps were quite effectively textured and so Penny did not slip as she climbed them, still supported by April. At the top she took a deep breath, feeling the chill of the conditioned air on her oily, naked young body and knowing that she was effectively about to lay down in her own coffin, never to get up again.

Carefully, with April helping as best she could from floor level, Penny stepped into the box and lay down, wriggling to get comfortable on the oily bed of kale and pineapple, then rested her neck on the inside of the semi-circle, her pretty, freckled face outside the box and looking upwards into the intensely concentrating face of April who place a small pillow on the shelf beneath her head to maker her more comfortable. As penny adjusted her body a little, April made sure that her ginger braids were outside the box. Once Penny was in place, April slid the top of the head-collar into place, effectively locking her in and making it so that Penny could no longer see her admittedly already delicious-looking body. 

“How does it feel?” Jessica asked from behind the camera. 

“Surprisingly comfortable actually!” Penny smiled. “I can feel the warmth underneath me but it’s not too hot yet. I hope it’s going to be hot enough to cook me!”

“I’m sure it will be once it’s all finished and sealed up!” Jessica assured her before moving down the box to film what April was now doing. Much as she had before, April began spreading out pineapple slices, but this time over Penny’s body. These were quickly followed by the garlic slices and drizzling of oil. Before she added the kale leaves and without a word of explanation, she gently manoeuvred Penny’s left arm so that her hand rested over her plump and freshly-hairless pussy lips. Penny understood immediately and moved her right arm accordingly. Still without saying a work, April gave her arm a little pat to acknowledge their understanding. Penny had several hours to wait in the box while she cooked – she might as well enjoy it as much as she could!

Satisfied that the meat was in optimum position, April covered her neck to toe with more of the kale leaves then folded over the tin foil so that Penny was cocooned in a metallic chrysalis. Now it was Jessica’s turn again so April quickly wiped her oily hands and took the camera, filming while Jessica poured more compost over Penny’s body, followed by the remaining coals which she spread out as before then a final level of compost, stopping just shy of the top of the box. After setting the camera back on its stand, April helped Jessica to lift the lid and place it on top. There were no clips or screws to hold it on but a slight ridge finding its home showed them that it was in place. Both black-clad girls stepped back to admire their handiwork.

“Well there we have it, folks!” April addressed the stationary camera. “Now all we have to do is wait for the slow-cooker to do its work and, by the time we take Penny out, she should be deliciously cooked and we’ll all be in for a treat! See you all later!” As Penny had done, she blew a cheeky kiss at the lens while Jessica ran behind the camera to switch it off. 

“That’s a wrap!” Jessica confirmed as the red light on the front of the camera was extinguished. 

“So?” Penny asked a little impatiently, feeling the weight of the soil on top of her and the as yet not uncomfortable warmth inside the box. “How did it go? Did it all work like we planned?”

“It worked perfectly!” April assured her, stroking her hair a little. “What should we do now? Do you want us to stay with you?”

“Nah,” Penny smiled. “Go grab some breakfast or something. Just come back and check on me in about an hour, would you? See if I need anything then?” 

“Okay.” Her friend smiled, leaning in to give her a little kiss on the cheek. “And thank you for doing this!” 

“Oh my pleasure!” Penny grinned, a genuine smile of happiness this time. “I just hope it works how we planned and I really am delicious!” 

The hour passed slowly. At first, Penny tried to sleep but the florescent lights above her were too bright even with her eyes closed. She wished that she had asked for some kind of blindfold – perhaps her T-shirt rolled up and draped over her eyes. At least that would have blocked the light. She was very conscious of the weight of the soil on top of her but it was not crushingly heavy. What it reminded her of most was being buried under the sand at the seaside, something her little brother and she would happily take turns at when they were younger. Every time she breathed in, she felt the loose compost settle a little but it was not so heavy that it kept her from breathing out, as she had been afraid it might be. Although she knew she was going to die in that box and had long since made her peace with the idea, the thought of being crushed and suffocated still scared her.

To pass the time, as her tomb began to grow ever warmer, she pondered what the experience of dying was going to be like. What would actually kill her? She was grateful that she was not being cooked over coals or an open fire and she did not like the thought of her skin burning, drying out and cracking. They had discussed the technical aspects of cooking her meat many times but the thought of how it would actually feel to be cooked never seemed to come up. This form of cooking was supposed to cook evenly, inside and out, rather than outside through to the inside so she imagined it would continue to grow warmer until her organs started to shut down. The trapped girl could not help wondering just how much heat she would live to experience and how much, if any, pain she might experience as she slowly cooked to death. She hoped that it would feel like falling asleep in a nice, hot bath. 

Despite the weight of the soil above her, Penny found that she was able to move her fingers a little, just enough to give some stimulation. Her restricted movement and the overall circumstances meant a climax was highly unlikely but it still felt nice and was a welcome distraction from what was happening to her, although she could not help but wonder if her increased heart rate would speed up or slow down the cooking process. At least, for now, she was relatively comfortable. 

“Hey there!” Penny was snapped out of her musings but April’s voice. She turned her head to the side and saw both girls walking towards her with large soda cups in their hands. Jessica appeared to be finishing some kind of pastry. “How’s it going?”

“Well, I think.” Penny smiled, glad to have company again. The loneliness of laying alone in the box in an otherwise empty exhibition hall was not something that she had anticipated, “It’s kind of hard to tell from here! Hey,” she chuckled as she watched Jessica pop the last morsel into her mouth and lick her fingers, “Make sure you leave room for lunch! I hear the main dish is slow-cooked ginger and you wouldn’t want to miss out on that, would you?” 

“Oh don’t worry!” Jessica laughed. “I’ve got plenty of appetite left for you! So,” she pulled a stool from the side of the booth and sat down next to the table, bringing her to the same level as Penny’s exposed head and making it easier to chat, “How does it feel?” 

“Just kinda warm at the moment.” Penny replied after a few moments consideration as April sat down on her own stool next to Jessica. “A bit like being after the bath when you wrap yourself in a towel that’s been hanging over the radiator.”

“That actually sounds quite nice!” April observed. “Not that I wanted it to, but I was worried that it was going to be painful for you.”

“Maybe it will be at some point but not yet.” smiled Penny. Then a thought occurred to her. “You know, maybe we should do a little more filming? The camera has a time-stamp on, doesn’t it?”

“Well yeah but there’s nothing to see yet.” April looked a little puzzled. “Just your head sticking out of the box and nothing really has changed about that since you went in, other than your cheeks being a little pinker maybe?”

“But we don’t just want people to want to cook girls this way, do we?” Penny explained patiently, mildly amused by the confusion on her team-mates’ faces, “We want girls to choose this method! To want it and look forward to it! If I can prove to them it’s nothing to be afraid of then it might help with marketing and that sort of thing when we win!”

“If we win.” Remarked April, ever the pragmatist. “But yeah, good idea!”

“When we win!” Penny corrected her forcefully. “It’s okay for you two, you can go invent other things but this is my only shot and I wouldn’t have got into this box to be turned into lunch for a room full of strangers if I didn’t believe in what we were doing! Now,” she added with a grin, “go grab the camera!”

Considering herself the most experienced at handling it, Jessica bounced up from her seat and retrieved the camera. Pointing it at Penny’s face she selected the fade-in option, hit record and gave her friend a thumbs-up from behind the camera to show that it was rolling.

“Hello again!” Penny greeted her potential viewers, “Last time I spoke to you, we were about to begin the process. You saw how the box was assembled and how my body was prepared ready for cooking. Well, as you can see I have now been cooking for a little over one hour and I wanted to tell you a little about the experience.” April leant forward with interest, waiting to hear Penny’s description, while Jessica held the camera steady with a close-up of the red-head’s cute, slightly warm-looking face.

“So far,” Penny explained, “there is no pain. Not even any real discomfort. I was worried that the compost on top of me was going to feel too heavy but it doesn’t. The box seems to be warming up steadily, much more slowly than an oven would. It’s designed to hold its temperature for far longer but I’m sure I won’t be around for too much of it once it reaches its peak. I don’t know exactly how long I’ll survive in here or whether I’ll have an opportunity to talk to you again so I’d like to say that, from the point of view of the meat, I can really recommend this cooking method and would definitely choose it over an oven or spit! Well,” she grinned a little cheekily, “in case I don’t get another chance to speak to you, I’d better say ‘bon appetite!’” 

“Great!” Jessica grinned, having turned off the camera and set it back on its stand. She took out her phone and glanced at the time. “I suppose it’s going to be another couple of hours before anyone else starts arriving. Is there anything you need? Anything we can do to keep you comfortable?”

“I could do with a little drink of water?” Penny asked, tentatively, “If that’s allowed?” She and Jessica both looked at April. 

“I guess a little couldn’t hurt, just to wet your whistle, as my Gran used to say?”

“Exactly.” Penny smiled gratefully. “Don’t worry, I know nobody likes their meat stewed in pee!” All three girls laughed as April went to the fridge and took out one of the plastic water bottles that had been provided by the organisers for all the teams. Carefully, so as not to spill it, she tipped a little of the delightfully icy liquid into Penny’s open mouth. 

“We’re gonna go again for a bit.” April explained after checking that Penny had got enough water. We’ll come check on you again in another hour but one of the organisers is here and wants to go through some paperwork with us, contracts and that sort of thing. We said we had to come check on you first. Hopefully by next time we’ll be able to smell some cooking going on?” she added with a somewhat wolfish grin. Although she was a little sad to be losing her friend, she could not hide the fact that she was looking forward to finding out how she tasted!

“Is there anything else you need?” Jessica asked kindly. Penny remembered the issue she had experienced the first time she was left alone. 

“Do you think you could put something over my eyes?” she asked meekly, “So I can try to sleep?” April went to search for a suitable blindfold while Jessica stood next to her friend, smiling down at her and gently stroking her hair. 

“I’m not sure I said it properly before,” she smiled a little sadly, “but I really am so grateful for what you’re doing. We both are. When we win,” she grinned, “and I know we will, we will owe it all to you!” Penny wasn’t quite sure what to say so just smiled back.

“Oh come on,” she managed after a moment, “this is totally a team effort!”

“Yeah,” Jessica agreed with a little giggle, “but I think you’ve managed to totally redefine taking one for the team!” Just then, April returned with a clean, soft hand-towel which she folded over and over until it was a little less than four inches wide. She laid it carefully over Penny’s slightly sweaty face, covering her eyes. The moment she did so, Penny was enveloped in darkness. This was much better. The darkness combined with the strange comfort of the increasingly warm box seemed to guarantee sleep. 

“Here.” Jessica surprised Penny by leaning down and kissing her. Not an affectionate peck like April had given but a full, romantic and passionate kiss on the mouth. Without even realising what she was doing, Penny began to move her fingers again. “Stick around until we get back,” Jessica whispered cheekily in her ear, “and there’s more where that came from!” 

*

Penny supposed she must have drifted off to sleep because she did not remember anyone else coming into the room but now she was vaguely aware of chatter close by and metallic scraping, presumably from equipment being rolled into place. 

“Hang in there.” A kind voice said as she felt more icy cold water being poured into her slightly-open mouth. She swallowed it instinctively and gratefully. “Not too much longer to go now.” Breathing seemed to be becoming harder and she now felt uncomfortably hot, as if she were suffering from a terrible fever. Her body seemed to be telling her that she was trapped and that she needed to escape but her head could not make sense if it. She could not remember exactly where she was, why it was dark or why she was feeling so hot but the situation had a certain rightness about it, as if it were to be expected and everything was as it should be. 

There was a different sensation on her lips now. A nice one. Was someone kissing her?

“Wow that tasted different!” A voice said close to her. Perhaps it was the one who had given her the encouragement a few moments earlier but maybe not. Penny thought about asking but she wasn’t actually sure she could talk and, even if she could, it felt like a lot of effort that she did not care strongly enough to make. “I think her insides are cooking!”

“Wow, really?” Another, similar voice spoke. What was that about cooking? Was someone preparing a meal for them? Insides of what? “I need to try!” Penny felt soft lips on hers again and an inquisitive tongue in her mouth followed by a curious sucking sensation, as if the person kissing her were trying to steal her breath. There was more talking but Penny couldn’t focus on the words. The near-by voices seemed to grow less distinct and mingle with the many other voices in the background. 

Penny was nine years old and enjoying a day at the beach. Her mum was sat close by reading a romance novel and her dad was down by the water teaching her older sister Judy how to skim stones. She knew that she was wearing her favourite Little Mermaid swimsuit although she couldn’t see it as she was buried up to her neck in the sand while her little brother Will patted the yellow crystals down around her with his green plastic spade. It was a fun game but she was starting to feel uncomfortable. It was too hot. Not from the sun which was tempered by a pleasantly cool breeze but rather the heat was coming from the sand around her. She worried they had dug the hole too deep – she had learned in school how, if you dug down far enough you would find red hot lava. Perhaps they had accidentally broken through the crust of the Earth and were about to cause a brand new volcano, right there on the beach? 

There was an ear-splitting scream that brought Penny’s mind right back to the here and now. Or as close to it as she was capable of focussing on.

“What was that?” She murmured softly, “Sounds like someone got hurt.” She tried to sit up but found she could not move. And why was it still so dark? Perhaps someone needed to turn the lights on before someone else got hurt. “I should go help.” 

“Don’t worry.” A reassuring hand was on her forehead, dabbing her with a damp cloth. “Just lay still. It’s nothing for you to worry about. Either someone’s demonstration is not going as well as they hoped or somebody bought a ticket without checking what kind of show this was!” There were more voices around now, lots more. What had been a dull background chatter now seemed like more of a roar. Yet, strangest of all, among the many voices all around her, Penny could pick out her own. She was sure she was not talking yet the words sounded familiar. She tried to focus but something was wrong – she was hearing the same few sentences over and over again. Something about a demonstration? Then something about feeling comfortable?

But Penny was not comfortable. She did not like it there in hot, dark, noisy room where she couldn’t seem to move. She wanted to be back on the beach. It had been nice there, at least until the sand started getting hot. 

“My turn!” Will grinned as Penny wriggled her shoulders and scooped the sand aside to get out of the hole. It was annoying how the sand from the sides seemed to be falling in – they would need to do some more digging before it was big enough again to bury Will, even ‘though he was a lot smaller than her. Penny was comfortable now. She felt happy. The sand hadn’t been that hot after all – she must have just imagined it. As she and her brother lay on their bellies scooping out the sand she wondered if they could did a hole deep enough to bury Mum or Dad? 

“One last kiss?” April suggested, leaning over the shallowly-breathing face of her friend before touching lips as they had before, savouring the rich flavour of the steam which rose from inside Penny’s nearly-cooked body. 

“My turn!” Jessica stepped forward as April stood up. As the flavourful fumes filled her mouth she felt a change. A stillness came over Penny and, although the steam still rose it was no longer being pushed by her lungs. “Wow!” Jessica stood up, a little wide-eyed. “I think I just tasted her last breath! And it was delicious!” 

*

By the time Jessica and April returned from their meeting with the organisers, the hall was filling up quite nicely. It was still half an hour or so before the public were to be let in but all the other contestants were there, setting up their demonstrations. Since plagiarism or other types of copying would be pretty much impossible by that point, and all devices and procedures were described on the entry forms, there was no restriction on contestants who were already set up wandering around and taking a look at what others had come up with. Since Penny was well on her way to being done and there was very little for them to do other than wait, the two girls decided to go explore. After setting their video running on the provided screen, showing Penny’s introduction and the early stages of the prep, they set off.

The first thing that struck them both was the number of naked girls and young women either wandering around, helping to set up the devices in or on which they would likely very soon be cooked or simply sitting in the booths, flicking though magazines or on their phones while they waited for their teams to get set up. Nobody other than Penny actually seemed to be cooking yet so it seemed fair to assume most other cooking methods on display that day involved a shorter process. The youngest they saw seemed to be a pair of girls, sisters from the looks of them, around nine or ten years old who were chasing each other around the booth playing tag to the obvious irritation of the team that were trying to set up in there. There were a few young women, mostly from the mixed teams, who looked to be around nineteen or twenty but most seemed to be in their mid-teens, as was fairly typical for meat girls. Chatting with each other as they explored, April and Jessica pondered how many had been purchased for the demonstrations and how many were friends or family members talked into helping out. 

Although no girls were cooking yet, it was not too difficult to work out the rough mechanics of the majority of entries. There seemed to be a lot of variations on the traditional spit or stew pot but others were a little more intriguing, such as a device that seemed to consist of a pair of flexible tubes, like thick garden hoses, fed from something that they were pretty sure was a repurposed immersion heater from an old house! There was also a sort of cage which had several cables running from it as if it cooked by passing electric current through the girl.

“Wow, that’s gotta hurt!” Jessica observed, looking with a mixture of fear and fascination at what she was pretty sure was a deep-fryer. It was a large tank of straw-coloured oil which, while not boiling yet, was clearly starting to heat up. Beside it, on the floor for now but attached to a kind of hoist system and swinging arm was a metal basket large enough for a girl or small adult to sit in with her knees tucked up. A petite brunette around there own age stood close by, naked buy holding a folder in her hands and giving sharp instructions to the boys who made up the rest of the team – clearly in this mixed team she was both the leader and test-subject! At least she would know what she was letting herself in for and there could be no question about her willingness, April and Jessica thought to themselves. 

“I guess we should get back to our booth.” April commented, noticing that the hall was starting to fill up and that not everyone was attached to a team so the public must have been allowed in. “I hope Penny was able to sleep like she wanted to and that it’s not hurting her too much.”

“Honestly,” Jessica replied with a slight shrug, “of all the devices I’ve seen so far, ours looks to be one of the most humane. Some of those things looks pretty grim and some of the girls are really young!”

“Yeah…” April looked a little troubled. “I hope they’re going to kill them or at least give them something to knock them out before they start cooking or there’s going to be a lot of tears!”

Back at their own booth, a small group of onlookers had gathered. Some were touching the outside of the box, commenting to each other about the warmth they could feel through the wood. Others were watching the video with interest, intrigued to see how the process worked. None of them were paying any attention to Penny herself, despite the fact that her crudely blindfolded head was sticking out the end of the box. 

April approached a little gingerly. From what she could tell, Penny was in a slightly delirious state, neither quite awake nor asleep. She was muttering something about sand but she couldn’t really make it out. She was clearly not too long for this world. Wanting to make her last few minutes as comfortable as possible, April took the water bottle out of the fridge again and poured a little more water into her friend’s slightly-open mouth before leaning down and giving her a tender kiss. 

“Well, this is it!” Jessica took a deep breath and glanced over at April who seemed to be a picture of confidence, despite how important this moment was for them. She had known the taller girl for long enough to know that she would be just as nervous as she was below the surface but was very good at assuming a mask of confidence when the situation called for it. 

The organisers and judges were assembled, a curious crowd of onlookers made up of the public and other contestants gathered behind them. All were waiting to see how well the simple slow-cooking device had worked. Multiple cameras and phones were focussed on the girls, stood behind the box, including a very large one being held by the official cameraman of the event. Obviously Penny could not be the one to do the talking this time so April began.

“Ladies and gentlemen, judges and organisers, thank you for coming to our presentation.” She paused for the polite smattering of applause that followed. “As you will see from the video section of the presentation,” she indicated the screen which had been muted but was still playing, the time-stamps clearly visible in the bottom left corner, “our subject, Penny, has been cooking for several hours and was alive and fully cooperative when the process began.” She removed the slightly damp rolled towel which covered her late friend’s face. Penny looked serene, as if enjoying a lovely dream. Other than some redness, nobody would be able to tell from looking at her head that her body was thoroughly cooked. Of course, this meant there was no way Jessica and April could know for sure whether their device had worked effectively. There was no reason why it should not have done but this was, after all, the first test on anything bigger than a fish! “Oh well,” April whispered under her breath, “moment of truth!” 

Working together, the two girls lifted the lid off the box and set it on its end, upright, at one end of the table. There was a feeling of warmth that hit their faces, like leaving an air-conditioned building and going out onto the street on a hot day but it was not hot like opening an oven. With a small garden tool, April gently raked the top layer of compost, careful not to push too deep and risk puncturing the foil. 

“As you can see,” April continued with almost audible relief, “the charcoal layer is now spent and reduced to ash. While it is still warm, it is no melting or fire risk and can simply be mixed in with the compost for the next use.” As practised, Jessica retrieved a large builder’s bag and set it at on the floor at the end of the table. At the other end, below the head-shelf and technically under Penny’s shoulders, April slid a small, wedge-shaped metal device with a crank-handle. As she turned the handle, the wedge expanded like a car jack and lifted the box to an angle of about twenty degrees. One this was done, Jessica lifted the upper section of the foot of the box out of its grooves and a small shower of compost tumbled into the waiting bag. Carefully, using brushes from a dust-pan and brush set, the two girls swept the warm mix of compost and grey charcoal ash out of the box and into the bag, revealing the metallic chrysalis which contained Penny’s hopefully-cooked body. 

The bag was moved out of the way and the box lowered back to its horizontal resting place. Knowing that the foil-wrapped meat was likely to be very hot to the touch, the girls donned oven gloves and, after removing the top half of the neck brace, gently and very carefully lifted their cooked friend out of the box and laid her in front of it on the metal table, looking a little like an ancient mummy unearthed from some Egyptian tomb. 

Before the watching eyes of the those with the power to decide her future, not to mention the onlookers and various cameras, April offered up a silent prayer to whatever force controls the universe that their cooking method would have worked how they expected and she wasn’t about to unveil a burned or dried out corpse to the world. Explaining that the meat would likely now be quite delicate, ready to be pulled from the bone, and therefore unwrapping must be done very carefully, she took a pair of industrial shears, capable of cutting through the double layer of aluminium foil and, staring just under Penny’s chin, began to cut through the metal and the thick leafs below like a paramedic cutting through the jeans of an injured person. 

Almost immediately, a cloud of steam escaped and the area was filled with a delicious smell – a mixture of cooked pork and garlic mixed with the sweetness of the pineapple and honey. With a sigh of relief, April continued to cut down the length of Penny’s body, taking care to keep her face out of the path of the released steam which, unlike the soil, was incredibly hot. Eventually, she reached Penny’s feet and made a couple of sideways cuts then returned to the head end and cut across her shoulders. 

There was a second round of applause, far more genuine and enthusiastic this time, as the girls peeled back the foil revealing the cooked body of their friend. The kale leafs came away with the meal creating the pleasing impression that the meat lay on a bed of garnish on a large platter. In truth, neither April nor Jessica had been quite sure what to expect of a slow-cooked human body but Penny lay there looking much as she had in life, other than a little mottling on her skin which was now a very light brown colour as if the redhead had, for the first time in her life, managed to get a tan. She looked so beautiful, with the sweet steam rising gently from her naked form, that it almost seemed a shame to break her apart but the girls knew that presentation was only a small part of the test – their futures would be made or broken depending on how the meat tasted. 

April had correctly theorised that the meat would be practically falling off the bone so she did not need a knife to take a piece of Penny’s delicious-looking thigh, instead gripping a piece with a pair of tongs and pulling it away easily before placing the offering on one of the paper plates that had been provided and handing it to the first judge along with a small wooden fork. She prepared two more pieces the same way so that all the judges had a piece then, as was their right, she and Jessica got to try some for themselves. Rather than continuing with the thigh, they decided to share a breast. Without even using the tongs, Jessica took hold of Penny’s deliciously juicy-looking left breast and pulled, delighted by the way it came away so easily, releasing another waft of the delicious cooked smell. She broke it in half and handed one part to April. It was indeed juicy and both girls had to wipe their chins several times and wash their hands when they were done but it was worth it for the indescribably delicious taste. 

It was impossible to tell the mood of the judges as they ate their samples then, along with the organisers and cameraman, made their way to the next booth but they appeared satisfied. Several of the onlookers went with them but a far larger number stayed, anxious to try some of Penny’s meat! In order to make as much as possible accessible, the girls very carefully rolled Penny onto her side so it looked as if she was in bed. The under-side of the meat looked every bit as delicious as the top and neither girl could resist claiming a handful of her juicy bottom before stepping back and letting the public have at it. Some used the plates and made use of the tongs but many were simply grabbing bite-sized pieces of meat straight off the carcass and popping them into their mouth, savouring the delicious flavour. 

“Ladies and gentlemen!” a voice intoned over the loud-speakers all around the massive hall some two hours later when there was very little of Penny left. As well as the meat that people might expect to be tasty, the slow-cooking process had made her organs and offal just as delicious and most of her innards had gone the way of her flesh. Only her pretty, uncooked head with its thin ginger plaits remained untouched. “Would all competitors and guests please make their way to the central stage for the announcement of the judges’ decision. 

Dutifully, after covering Penny’s face respectfully with a soft towel, April and Jessica joined the throngs of others making their way towards the stage where the head of the company behind the competition, a smart-looking woman in her late forties, stood at a lectern with the other organisers and judges seated behind her. The girls managed to find a space to stand fairly close to the front where they could see quite well. Jessica noticed with amusement that all the other competitors’ clothes were now infused with a wonderful array of cooking smells!

“First of all,” the woman on the stage began once everyone appeared to be gathered, “we would like to thank everyone who entered this year. The standard of entries has been exceptionally high and extremely difficult to judge so we are also incredibly grateful to our panel of chefs and critics who took on this challenging task.” There was a round of polite applause. “And of course,” she continued, “posthumous thanks must go to all the wonderful, selfless girls and young women who gave up their bodies for today’s demonstrations. Without them, the event really would not have been possible!” There was more applause, a little more enthusiastic this time but still with a general air of impatience. People wanted to know who had won. 

“So,” the woman smiled, “without further ado, here are the results you’ve all been waiting for. In third place,” she took a large gold envelope from the lectern in front of her and opened it, pulling out the card inside, “winning a £1000 research and development grant, is Sandra and Robert Howarth! Come on up!” The large screen hanging above her head showed the sibling’s entry and video footage of its use. It was a fairly traditional-looking cooking pot heated with electric elements like a tea kettle. In it, two cute brunettes of maybe twelve and fourteen, both with curly locks which closely resembled the pair of older teens making their way up onto the stage, were giggling and splashing each other. The prize was presented in the form of an over-sized check, photographs were taken and applause awarded before the pair made their way back down the steps. April wasn’t sure quite how to feel – one prize down, one less chance of winning anything at all, yet there were the two greater prizes still to go and, had they been awarded this one, they would have known they were out of the running for what everyone there really wanted. As things stood, there was still hope!

“Second prize of a week-long residential cookery course and a £5000 research and development grant goes to Suki Ling, Don Arnold and Alex Seacrest!” The trio made their way onto the stage as footage showed a young teenaged girl of north-Asian heritage cooking in a kind of giant wok. April noticed that she was holding her breath as the second-prize winners left the stage. She glanced over at Jessica beside her and saw that she appeared to be doing the same and was in fact turning distinctly pink-cheeked! 

“And finally,” the woman announced, milking the tension, “the winner of the first prize of the Roebuck Scholarship is…” she paused. The silence seemed to go on for several hours. “April Menzies and Jessica Seymour!” There was a massive eruption of applause. For the girls, it did not feel real. They made their way up onto the stage to be photographed accepting their certificate in a kind of daze, while footage of Penny climbing into the box cutting quickly to the unveiling of the meat played above them. 

When the prize ceremony had ended and they returned to their booth to clear up, the girls were upset to find that Penny’s pretty head was missing. It seemed like someone had stolen it while most people were watching the announcements and decided to keep it as some kind of souvenir. Realising that there was not a lot they could do about it and still not entirely believing the whole situation was real and not an amazing dream, they began to pack Penny’s all but picked clean bones into a plastic box. They were going to offer them to her family and, if they didn’t want them, perhaps bury them under a tree or something in tribute to their friend who had given so much to help secure their futures. 

“Don’t leave just yet, girls!” They turned and say the woman who had announced them as winners stood at the entrance to their booth holding an elegant, dark green cardboard box which looked like a fancy shoebox but a little deeper. “You wouldn’t want to leave without your trophy! Hopefully it will have pride of place in your dorm room and you will take it with you into your future!” She grinned and held out the box to them. A little confused, April stepped forward and took it, finding it to be quite heavy. She set it down on the metal table so that she and Jessica could open it together while the woman stood by, smiling. 

Carefully, April lifted the lid off the box and set it aside. The inside of the box was padded and whatever it contained was covered by a sheet of satin the same colour as the outside. She let Jessica remove this. They both gasped when they saw what was inside.

“Vacuum-plated.” The woman explained. “Not gold, I’m afraid, as that tends to be too soft and is too easy damaged but, give her a polish every couple of months and she’ll stay shiny and beautiful forever!” 

“Wow!” April exclaimed, lifting the trophy and turning it around in her hands to better inspect. It was Penny’s head! Coated in metal but such a thin layer that every detail of her pretty face, every individual hair in her braids, was visible! Tears began to flow down both girls’ cheeks as they realised that their friend’s head had not been stolen by some morbid souvenir-hunter but rather taken to be preserved in such a way that they could take her with them for whatever adventures lay ahead. 

THE END


End file.
